Reality vs. Fiction
It's ironic to me that I spent most of my adult life ascertaining the reality of things and then using words and graphics to represent that reality as precisely and accurately as possible. Now I spend most of my free time writing fiction and drawing pencil/charcoal sketches for pleasure. Strange how life works isn't it?
It stuck with me in my fiction writing. It also stuck with me when I read other people's fiction or watch a movie. Sometimes I really get disgusted. Thing is, art is supposed to be the language of emotion. Art, in whatever form, is supposed to be the way we communicate those things to each other that cannot be said any other way. But when I see some piece of rank bullshit present to me onscreen or in print it just ruins the whole experience for me. And so much of it is nothing but mental laziness on the part of the writer or producer.
Take fight scenes for instance. It isn't necessary to be a professional soldier to understand the basic principles of self-defense. Nor is it necessary to be a martial arts master. In fact martial arts get in the way. If a person digs into the archives of a public library, or online, you can readily find file footage of combat operations. Watch how the real soldiers operate in combat. Do they get fancy? Do they dance around on tippy toes and pirouette? No. They stick with basic moves. They watch their balance, they move cautiously, they move conservatively, they use basic motions and they concentrate on gross motor skills. Many US soldiers have studied martial arts. Many hold black belts in various disciplines. But if you watch film clips of US soldiers in combat, whether it be clips from Vietnam, WWII, either Gulf War, or whenever, you won't see them strutting around and acting flashy. They keep it simple.
That's why it bugs me to watch a fight scene in a movie. For instance, a sword fight. I write science-fantasy sometimes. Watching some of those ludicrous excuses for sword fights makes me irascible. Taking a western European broadsword and swinging it using a combination of Japanese and Chinese fencing forms is bad enough. But when I see the so called fighters spinning around it's almost more than I can stand. I wish devoutly that just once, someone would start that ditzy twirling and his opponent would simply reach out and bury their blade to the hilt between the jackass's shoulder blades. I would gladly buy a stack of the movie DVDs and pass them out as party favors.
It stuck with me in my fiction writing. It also stuck with me when I read other people's fiction or watch a movie. Sometimes I really get disgusted. Thing is, art is supposed to be the language of emotion. Art, in whatever form, is supposed to be the way we communicate those things to each other that cannot be said any other way. But when I see some piece of rank bullshit present to me onscreen or in print it just ruins the whole experience for me. And so much of it is nothing but mental laziness on the part of the writer or producer.
Take fight scenes for instance. It isn't necessary to be a professional soldier to understand the basic principles of self-defense. Nor is it necessary to be a martial arts master. In fact martial arts get in the way. If a person digs into the archives of a public library, or online, you can readily find file footage of combat operations. Watch how the real soldiers operate in combat. Do they get fancy? Do they dance around on tippy toes and pirouette? No. They stick with basic moves. They watch their balance, they move cautiously, they move conservatively, they use basic motions and they concentrate on gross motor skills. Many US soldiers have studied martial arts. Many hold black belts in various disciplines. But if you watch film clips of US soldiers in combat, whether it be clips from Vietnam, WWII, either Gulf War, or whenever, you won't see them strutting around and acting flashy. They keep it simple.
That's why it bugs me to watch a fight scene in a movie. For instance, a sword fight. I write science-fantasy sometimes. Watching some of those ludicrous excuses for sword fights makes me irascible. Taking a western European broadsword and swinging it using a combination of Japanese and Chinese fencing forms is bad enough. But when I see the so called fighters spinning around it's almost more than I can stand. I wish devoutly that just once, someone would start that ditzy twirling and his opponent would simply reach out and bury their blade to the hilt between the jackass's shoulder blades. I would gladly buy a stack of the movie DVDs and pass them out as party favors.
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